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ASEAN special envoy to visit Myanmar on March 20
A media note by Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, however, did not refer to details such as who Prak Sokhonn, who doubles as the country's foreign minister, will meet with and what he will do during the planned travel.
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Cambodia's Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn speaks during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Retreat press conference in Phnom Penh on February 17, 2022.
(AFP/TANG CHHIN Sothy )
C
ambodian Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn will make his first visit to Myanmar from March 20 to 23 as ASEAN special envoy as part of the 10-nation group's efforts to address the crisis in the Southeast Asian country, the Cambodian government said Wednesday.
A media note by Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, however, did not refer to details such as who Prak Sokhonn, who doubles as the country's foreign minister, will meet with and what he will do during the planned travel.
Prak Sokhonn said on Feb. 18 he is expected to meet with Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, Wunna Maung Lwin, the junta's foreign minister, and other figures in the capital Naypyidaw.
Prak Sokhonn said he will also travel to Yangon to deliver humanitarian assistance at a hospital.
Cambodia serves as this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In a chairman's press statement issued after an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Phnom Penh on Feb. 18, the ministers "called on the authorities in Naypyidaw to facilitate missions of the Special Envoy of the ASEAN Chair, beginning with the first visit to Myanmar as soon as possible in order to move forward the implementation of the five-point consensus."
ASEAN's so-called five-point consensus includes a call for an immediate end to violence and the dispatch of the group's special envoy to meet with all stakeholders in the country, including civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted from power in the Feb. 1, 2021, coup.
"In this regard, we recognized that in undertaking his duties, the Special Envoy could engage with all the parties concerned," the Feb. 18 statement said.
But Prak Sokhonn said, "Maybe it's not possible to meet everyone for the first visit and we should not be too ambitious."
The Myanmar military, which detained Suu Kyi and toppled her democratically elected government in the coup, has not made progress in implementing the five-point consensus.
With some ASEAN members insisting last year that the group's envoy meet with all parties concerned including Suu Kyi, the previous ASEAN envoy from Brunei could not visit Myanmar amid a deadlock between the country and the nine other members of ASEAN.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
